Consumer Alert

Following on from my recent email conversation with King Crimson biographer Sid Smith, he's asked me to help pass on this alert to fans:

Inside King Crimson DVD and CD

A statement from Robert Fripp and DGM

The Inside The Music series is a "pot of gold" for Bob Carruthers & classic rock productions. It addresses a valuable & useful area of popular music studies; but in a cheap, nasty & cynical fashion that exploits everyone & scams the artists, the music & the fans.

Bob Carruthers is a likeable, personable & slippery, evasive character who has upset nearly everyone whose music he has, in some way, presented.

If transparency & accountability are two features of the ethical company, then Classic Rock Productions must be considered ethically challenged in extremis. Given my 38 years of hard experience as a professional within the music industry, Bob Carruthers' company would be better named Classic Crock Productions.

Robert Fripp,
World HQ, April 22nd 2005.

Inside King Crimson

In recent days I’ve received a number of enquiries from KC fans regarding a DVD entitled Inside King Crimson 1972 – 1975 and a CD, Inside King Crimson 1975-1979, Classic Rock Productions.

Potential purchasers should understand that neither item has been approved nor licensed by Robert Fripp, the copyright holder of the music.

As with many other products in this series, fans hoping to see full performances will be disappointed. In order to get around the copyright act, the DVD is marketed as a ‘critical review’.  In this context, snippets of footage under 20 seconds are deemed legal.

The majority of the content is made up of critical opinions by journalists, musicians, etc. On the Inside King Crimson DVD there are 10 second bursts of music.

The two bonus tracks are recycled from the John Wetton Ultimate Anthology, another product advertised by Classic Rock Direct.  John did not give approval of the original release or its use on either of these King Crimson items.  John, in common with many other artists featured in this series, has never received any royalties.

Elsewhere, other bands and musicians are becoming increasingly annoyed at the kind of sharp practice that recycles small clips, inferior sound quality and scripts and commentary riddled with inaccuracies.

Caravan are asking their fans to boycott this kind of material.

Their manager, Mark Powell, writes “You may be aware of releases by CLASSIC ROCK PRODUCTIONS on both DVD and CD. The material is in breach of contract or simply illegal. The band have not received royalties. The disputed titles are, 'WITH STRINGS ATTACHED' and 'NOWHERE TO HIDE'. Despite continual objections, Classic Rock Productions continue to exploit these recordings. These recordings have now been passed to a third party, who licensed them in good faith. These releases are now subject to dispute.

Consequently, DGM is actively taking steps regarding both Inside King Crimson release and urges KC fans NOT to purchase them.  Whilst DGM understands that there is a demand for rarely seen and archive footage of the band, Inside King Crimson is not that product.

For several months DGM has been undertaking research on producing a compilation of archive video footage of the band in all its incarnations. It is likely that the resulting DVD will include all the tracks mentioned on the Inside King Crimson DVD (minus constant interruptions and critical asides) in addition to many more performances, several of them seen for the first time.  A full press release itemising tracks and performances will be announced once licensing and clearance negotiations have been concluded.  In the meantime, we ask fans to be patient and to avoid the Classic Rock Productions.

Sid Smith
Author of In The Court of King Crimson

A glance at some comments from the proud owners of Classic Rock Productions over at Amazon and elsewhere on the internet gives some clue as to what King Crimson fans can expect if the Inside King Crimson becomes available.

“This is quite simply a con! . . . I was looking forward to seeing the "rare footage of Atom Heart Mother" - it lasts 10-15 seconds!. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!”

“This set of DVD's must be a con, pure and simple. Terrible reviews dumbed down with no new material or insights. . .These discs are advertised as suitable for college students and study groups, I don't get the joke! Best not to buy this drivel, it only encourages more of the same.”

“Oh dear...proclaiming to be the 'definitive critical review', this is nothing more than a DVD of talking heads, most of whom love Pink Floyd just like you or I. The trouble is, you and I probably could have made some more interesting comments!”

Inside Supertramp

“There were little snippets of live performances by Supertramp but this was overshadowed by a running commentary by the reviewers. It lasted just 63 minutes.”

It is a commentary documentary and nothing more. . . The total time that you actually see and hear Supertramp is negligible.  You’re lucky to see about 12 minutes of fragments from past performances (out of 63 minutes running time). (excerpted from prog-nose review)

Inside Nirvana

“Very poor dvd . . . no full live videos . . .just 5 seconds clip from MTV Live and Loud, MTV Unplugged, and Saturday night live.”

Inside Deep Purple

“The criticism is along the lines of "Machine Head is good, Who Do We Think We Are isn't", and the revelation that Smoke On The Water is a "classic riff". Nothing the reviewers' commentary will be new to Purple fans, and indeed some is inaccurate or at least incomplete.”

Uriah Heep

But the quality of performances and sound/video is quite another matter. . .They were omitted from previous DVD releases due to poor quality of sound/video or due to poor performance or because of poor sound mix (check the version of Lady in Black present), and now we get them on "Ultimate Anthology"!